


Imperial Annals of House Targaryen

by ShakespeareanMusings



Series: The Theatre of Warring Kingdoms [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 06:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17719796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShakespeareanMusings/pseuds/ShakespeareanMusings
Summary: Works of scholars documenting the events that happened during the reigns of various Targaryen emperors.





	Imperial Annals of House Targaryen

**Author's Note:**

> This is something I've been working on ever since I read the little comment about the current emperors of New Valyria so far. I've been thinking about posting a separate sheet altogether establishing the history that went alongside the alternate universe of House Targaryen of the Obsidian Throne. 
> 
> Initially, these bits of information, I wanted to add to every chapter I'd post, but then again, if I can just establish it separately, perhaps I don't need to bother with it later. Also, this is a some sort of platform I'll use for debates regarding the changes to House Targaryen. Feel free to point what you find good, or bad, or whatever the likes.
> 
> Keep in mind, this history line, while altered, still bears enormous resemblance to the canon line, purely because if I go too haywire on the Targs and their lineage, many descendants won't make any sense. 
> 
> Alright, that's as far as my part goes, enjoy the tid bits I've tried to come up with in the span of four days.

**Reign of the Dragon**

**With the Fall of Braavos, the War of Restoration had come to a conclusion, and the scholars of the Library of Pentos established the so-called Targaryen era, with the year of our Restorer, Y0 After Restoration as the starting point.**

**With the might of dragonfire, Aegon of the House Targaryen, First of his Line, Forever Elevated, Holy Valyrian Emperor, Scion of the Dragonlords and Sovereign of the Nine Cities, had raised from the fertile ashes of his ancestral lands an aspiring empire.**

**What came after the consecration of His Imperial Grace in the Temple of the Lord of Light was a period of rebuilding. Aegon and his family had taken residence in Old Volantis, between the highborn families claiming to be of the same lineage as their new sovereign. He began the plans of restoring the glory of a civilization once great enough to touch the sky.**

**During his reign, Emperor Aegon came across little resistance in his new empire. Small wisps of defiance once or twice occurred in Norvos, as the Bearded Priests were wont to do whenever something did not align with their own queer religious beliefs, but they soon sizzled away whenever Balerion the Black Dread hovered over their city, with a silent promise to bring fire and blood to those whimpering too much.**

**As proclaimed divine ruler on this worldly plane, Aegon Targaryen had complete and utter dominion over every single soul dwelling in the Nine Cities of Essos. His will was law and his voice was order. At least, as far as the Faith of R’hllor was concerned.**

**His Imperial Grace began his reign with the appointment of his inner council. At the advice of his sister-wife Rhaenys, he appointed several native lord freeholders and magisters of considerable influence to his council, as to appease them and start building good ties with his new vassals. Orys Baratheon, his most trusted advisor and friend, he offered the position of his loyal and strong right hand. No man was better suited for that task, Aegon had said.**

**Orys had different aspirations, however. With the conclusion of this war, he had gained little, and thus, he respectfully refused his friend’s offer, and instead decided to venture west, looking if his fortunes were somewhere else. His fate coalesced with a Storm Princess eventually.**

**Saddened, but understanding, Aegon gave his blessing to his friend, and in his stead appointed Aethan Velaryon, the father of the future Empress Alyssa, as the first Hand of the Emperor. Alongside his fellow Valyrian, whose loyalty to him was unquestioning due to shared blood and history, Emperor Aegon endeavoured on the task of rebuilding that what was once shattered by the Doom of Valyria.**

**His first task was the construction of a new city. The palace in Old Volantis sufficed to take care of the imperial family and its needs, and holding court was also no real hurdle, but Aegon wished for a seat of his own, with his own demesne aside of Dragonstone to govern. He did not wish to be dependent forever on the generosities of the Triarchs.**

**And so, he started looking. His eyes first fell upon the fertile and bountiful lands between Myr, Tyrosh and Lys, where the Storm King Argilac Durrandon had brought to heel the army Volantis had hastily assembled. It was reduced to cinders and mud after the Century of Blood, but Aegon of all people knew, that with some effort and dedication, ashes could bear the greatest fruit. Yet, the Disputed Lands were landlocked, away from the sea and placed between the cross-fire of three cities known for petty squabbling. Should there ever be rebellion, and Aegon was certain at least _once_ it would occur, even if he did not live to see it, the Disputed Lands were too vulnerable a place to build a capital. So, he looked further.**

**Upon Balerion’s back, Aegon circled over the lands he ruled over, and then, a great body of water came to his view. A great lake; Dagger Lake, he learned afterwards.**

**The fishermen had good stories of this lake; rich sludge that carried gold and amber, the lake itself teeming with fish and crabs, and bringing together the Qhoyne and Rhoyne confluence into one great river. It was an ideal place to settle, strategically excellent to defend, and as rich and fertile as the Disputed Lands had once been. And people before Aegon knew of that too. Pirates had taken the scattered isles, none of them answering to someone else but their own, and soon, Aegon started making plans for a campaign to flush out the lawless bandits of the rivers.**

**His campaign against the river pirates infesting Dagger Lake took only a handful of moonturns. Balerion the Black Dread was a very convincing diplomat in ‘negotiations’, but anyone who still refused to bow before the rightful emperor of western Essos met his end with fire and blood.**

**With Dagger Lake secured, Aegon Targaryen ordered the mass construction of slave camps near the outskirts of the lake. Several ruins of the Rhoynar and the Andals still lingered around, and had to be taken care of, and then there was the construction of the city itself. Still, Aegon had large expectations. He aspired to create a seat worthy of an emperor.**

**With the resources at his disposal, and the amassed manpower for this colossal task, Aegon and his Hand Aethan Velaryon were set to create ‘the heart where a thousand civilizations would come together’.**

* * *

**The Tales of the Seven Kingdoms**

**While the east fell in turmoil during the War of Restoration, Westeros largely remained at peace. The Seven Kingdoms most of the time tended to their own businesses, with the exception of the ironborn, whom were hated by most of the other kingdoms around for their raiding and reaving nature.**

**The King of the Rock, Loren I Lannister, and the King in the North, Torrhen IV Stark, in an unprecedented understanding, agreed to sign the Brightroar-Ice Pact, which stipulated that in the event that one of the two kingdoms was invaded by the likes of the ironborn, the other would come and offer aid. The agreement was sealed by marriage between King Loren’s second son, Gerold Lannister, to King Torrhen’s only daughter, Serena Stark.**

**The Brightroar-Ice Pact had its desired effect, and more even. King Harren the Black, the day he was finished placing the last stone of his lifework, Harrenhal, retreated within its confines and the lands of the Trident fell into a precarious peace. With the Pact, a clear message was sent across the Seven Kingdoms; should the ironborn draw their swords, heavy opposition would be offered. The Iron King concluded that waging war would drag in not only the North and the Rock, but also ambitions all around him. King Harren would be fighting a war on all fronts, and no matter how grand the castle of Harrenhal was, he could not hope to hold it in the face of a coalition. So, the King of the Isles and Rivers remained content with his holdings, for now.**

**Dorne and the Reach, bitter rivals since the Age of the First Men, also made peace with each other after long terms of hostilities. The borders at the Prince’s Pass, seeing decades of large and small scale conflicts, saw peace returned to them for the first time in a long while. Both Princess Meria and King Mern IX saw the futility of warfare if the only gain of land was a few strokes each time a clash of armies happened there.**

**The Vale had no time to consider political machinations, for it was currently under the guidance of Queen Regent Sharra Arryn, mother to the future King Ronnel Arryn. The regency of the boy-king placed the Vale under a stasis, and so, as it was used to do in times of uncertainty, the Vale closed the Bloody Gate and abided its time.**

**In contrast, tension brew in the Stormlands, as its king faced the potential threat of a succession crisis. King Argilac Durrandon’s only child was his daughter, the fair but strong-willed Argella. No other Durrandon had survived with Argilac along, as both the lines of his brothers died years ago, making him the only carrier of the stormblood.**

**For her skill, speed and prowess with a sword, the Storm Princess and presumptive heir to Storm’s End was renowned as Argella Stormblade. Many of Argilac’s bannermen vied to gain her hand in marriage, but the Storm Princess was not swayed by the urges of her father’s vassals. Most of them, she found uninspiring and weak, mere opportunists, who thought they could bind themselves to a hapless girl. As a means to make her point, she challenged her father’s strongest knight, and bested him in single combat thrice in succession. Her most famous line still inspire women across the Seven Kingdoms ‘If there is no man in this kingdom that can make me yield my sword, he will find it an even greater folly to try and bed me. I will not suffer a man weaker than myself. I’ll remain till the day I join my forebears unwed and untouched, if there is no man that can defeat me in single combat.’**

**Her mettle was a widespread song, and as time passed, an adventurer of dragonblood, hailing from the east, who once fought alongside the Holy Valyrian Emperor, moored at the shores of Weeping Town, and found his ear pulled by the strings of the song known as the Ode to the Stormborn.**

* * *

**The Seat of the Empire**

**After thirty years of peace and stability, the newly created Holy Valyrian Empire was a prospering child nurtured by the hand of the dragonlord Aegon Targaryen. A great gem was shining on the shore of Dagger Lake, where people flocked to in the hopes of finding favour and fortune. Where two great rivers met, a new city was slowly rising and rising like a mountain between hills.**

**New Valyria.**

**With the birth of New Valyria came the beginning of a powerful institution. Within the imperial palace made of scarlet and gold marble and black granite, Emperor Aegon fashioned a throne for himself that forever set the tone of every Targaryen emperor’s reign.**

**Imported from Dragonstone came large quantities of dragonglass, a black crystal material used to carve out glass candles, vision trinkets and other objects of magical proportions. The maesters of the Citadel call it obsidian, an ore dug out from the very flesh of the earth. Others named it differently, like the Asshai’i, who call it frozen fire, an heirloom of the Valyrians of old. Whatever its designation, Aegon Targaryen used the black vitreous matter as an eternal reminder where he started; the far-flung outpost where his ancestor Daenys the Dreamer sought refuge from the cataclysm.**

**From humble origins.**

**Now standing at the zenith of the world.**

**With Balerion’s fire, Aegon crafted a grand seat, black as the starless night, smooth and hard like glass, regal but uncomfortable to sit upon. He allowed for no feather pillow to be placed upon the hard surface of this symbol of imperial power.**

**The Emperor wanted a throne reminding him of the burdens of a ruler. A seat where no emperor could sit at ease.**

**From the day Emperor Aegon Targaryen said those very words, the Obsidian Throne never offered its incumbent any comfort.**

* * *

**The Black Shields of the Dithering Emperor**

**In the year of our Restorer, Y37 AR, His Imperial Grace, Emperor Aegon I, while he told stories to his grandsons Aegon and Viserys in Dragonstone, died one day clutching at his heart. A reign of six-and-thirty fruitful years he presided over, keeping the peace over a region which did not know peace since the beginning of the Bleeding Years.**

**His death was met with a month long mourning period, where his sister-wife alongside their son and grandchildren organized a sumptuous ceremony for his departure, where they invited the whole of the Empire to attend the cremation of his body. The late emperor, though sometimes harsh and ruthless, was kind to those who obeyed. Aegon Targaryen was not loved by all his subjects, but he at least found them all united in respect towards him. His emperorship was remarked with fondness and pride.**

**His only son and heir, Prince Aenys, who himself was in his early thirties, reluctantly climbed the steps of his father’s throne in the same year, and was crowned by the High Priest of R’hllor as Aenys Targaryen, First of his Line, Holy Valyrian Emperor, with his consort Alyssa Velaryon and his most trusted advisor his mother Dowager Empress Rhaenys. The Hand of the Emperor, which had grown into the second most powerful position a man could receive, was carefully chosen. The dignity eventually fell upon the Triarch of Volantis, Vhalaso the Munificent, a man who had a good name and reputation, and allegedly had the ability to turn anything he touched into gold.**

**The line of House Targaryen was secured in his sons, the Princes Aegon, Viserys and Jaehaerys, all three born to him by his empress-wife Alyssa. She had borne him also three daughters, two of which had survived infancy, the Princesses Rhaena and Alysanne.**

**As his children secured his line, the dragons Meraxes and Balerion secured his rule, ready to rain fire upon any that dared defy the imperial family, with the young Dreamfyre and Quicksilver growing stronger to one day fly alongside their kin.**

**A peaceful transition of a son to his father’s heritage seemed to be in sight, with the succession safe.**

**However, Aenys’ reign did not go without tumulus.**

**A small dissident group within the new capital of the Empire, remnants of notable families especially affected during the War of Restoration, like the previous Sealord’s, had been conspiring to assassinate several key members of the imperial family, the emperor included. The conspirators did not dare to move against the Dragon Emperor himself, for he was a man who could only be stopped by the arms of five others. But Aenys was not his father come again; he had mayhaps a tenth of his prowess, and suffered from dithering since he was a child, and the conspirators took advantage of his feeble disposition.**

**At the feast organized by His Imperial Grace to celebrate the nuptials of his son Prince Aegon to his daughter Princess Rhaena, a group of armed nobles attempted to overpower the guards and murder Emperor Aenys and his family. The crown prince was wounded in the skirmishes by a hidden knife stashed away in one of the nobles’ sleeves, but further than that, they did not manage, for the combined efforts of the guards as well as Prince Viserys’ skill with a hammer drove the nobles into a corner.**

**The crown prince survived the ordeal, and no other casualty save for a handful unlucky bystanders. The nobles who plotted the deaths of the imperial family were rounded, and the emperor sentenced them, to the chagrin of most of his family, to exile. But the assassination attempt did not go without consequences. The Empress Dowager Rhaenys did not stand for this insult, and decided to tighten the safety of New Valyria’s imperial family through the finding an elite guard solely pressed with the protection of the imperial family.**

**Rhaenys modelled them after the Night’s Watch and the Unsullied, whom she had read about extensively.**

**The Blackguard was found, a cohort of slave soldiers with no other purpose but to protect the emperor and his kin and kith. The selection process was brute; Their genitals were cut off first, so they could never have salacious desires. Those who had survived the heinous training would have their tongue cut off right after swearing the oath of utter allegiance,** **so they could never speak ill of or betray their lord the emperor. The Blackguards were soldiers who trained day and night, to the point of total obedience, beaten and moulded over and over until not even Valyrian steel could carve through them. Wherever the emperor went, the Blackguard followed. Each time a new emperor was crowned, the Blackguard was disbanded, and a new cohort would be chosen. In total, the Blackguard tallied a thousand members every reign.**

**The rise of the Blackguard increased the power of the Holy Valyrian Emperor.**

**Another period that threatened Aenys’ powerbase, was the dragon of his father, the Black Dread.**

**Balerion, mightiest of all dragons alive, grew restless after the death of his rider, the great Dragon Emperor. Aenys himself already had a dragon, his beloved Quicksilver, and even if he did not, many speculated whether he was mentally capable to command the might of Balerion. Due to his wilful and ill-tempered behaviour, Aenys acted cowed towards the black dragon, and steered his children away from it, convinced they should not try their hand in garnering the dragon’s loyalty, in fear of their safety.**

**The restless fits of the Black Dread grew more wrathful and erratic as days passed. Emperor Aenys, as one of his first acts, decided to build a nest for his dragons, so he could contain them somewhere without putting the population at risk. A great pit was delved outside New Valyria, the Dragonpit, home to all subsequent dragons that were claimed by the Targaryen dynasty. Meraxes, Quicksilver and Dreamfyre were at ease here, but this home, or prison as others had put it, could not hope to contain the dragon that brought to heel nine cities for the rest of its life.**

**The Dowager Empress recognized in Balerion a different feeling when she gazed into those multi-coloured eyes. He was in mourning as well, and so, at her insistence, the new emperor released Balerion from his confines and urged him to fly to where his wings wanted to carry him, saying that ‘No dragon the likes of Balerion will ever bend again, not unless someone equal to my father arises.’**

**That was the last sighting of the dragon whose wings could blot out the sun.**

**Years passed, and the Empire thrived.**

**Not long after her husband’s death, Rhaenys followed him in eternal rest, passing away in her sleep at the age of two-and-seventy, ten years of which she counselled her son Aenys. She was cremated in a similar ceremony as her husband, though with notably less ostentation than the late Dragon Emperor. It was a private formality where only members of the imperial family were allowed to attend. Meraxes, as opposed to Balerion, had a calmer fire burn in her belly, and contently rested in the Dragonpit the coming days.**

**With the death of his mother, Aenys grew more susceptible to poor decision-making. Emperor Aenys was not an impressive man necessarily. Kind-hearted and courteous, fluent in speech, a patron of the arts and ultimately, a man who sought to please, Aenys often made himself a victim of his own indecisiveness. When his mother was still alive, he had an advisor whose sound counsel was the driving force behind his decrees. After her death, Aenys was sometimes described by his wife as a ‘silvery silk tread, tugged left and right, threatening to tear in the middle if pulled too hard.’**

**His son, Prince Aegon, took liberal advantage sometimes of his father’s good nature. An adventurous and zestful young man, his thirst for exploring had infected his sister-wife Rhaena and daughter, Rhaella. One day, he requested from his father a ship so he could go quench his desire and explore the ruins of Old Valyria, a place now rumoured to be plagued by diseases, monsters and other ‘horrors of unspeakable nature’. His father did not see fault in the request, though it also played a part that the prince kept silent the reason why he wished to go explore.**

**Prince Aegon brought with him his closest friends, his wife Princess Rhaena and his daughter Princess Rhaella to an excursion towards the broken isles of Old Valyria, with the goal of discovering riches and others, for surely there were some things of worth left behind. Only the timid Princess Aerea remained, a pious and introverted girl with a heart as pure as her grandsire’s.**

**Little did they know, that it was the last time Emperor Aenys would see his eldest children and grandchild.**

* * *

**The Sword and the Book**

**Months had passed, and word of the crown prince and his entourage no longer came back to the capital. Emperor Aenys, disquieted by the disappearance of his son and heir, ordered the search for Prince Aegon, sending mercenaries and the likes in a desperate attempt to try and find his children and grandchild, promising great wealth to whomever found them.**

**Viserys, as the second eldest son, began his lessons in rulership, groomed by his mother the empress for the throne. Alyssa had reconciled herself after a week of deep lamentation with the truth that her son, daughter and granddaughter were claimed by the smouldering ruins of Old Valyria. At first, talks went around that her granddaughter, Princess Aerea, should be instead tutored to become the next Holy Valyrian Empress. But Aerea, already a devout follower of the Lord of Light, had revoked her claim to the Obsidian Throne, and wished to pursue a path as a priestess for the Faith of R’hllor after much deliberation with the High Priest, who eagerly welcomed a daughter of divine blood.**

**Prince Viserys had a warrior’s heart, with his strong muscles build for battle, like his great-grandsire, though strategy and patience were not his strongest suit. While his heart went to the sword, Prince Viserys held his mother in such incomparable esteem, that he tried to become the next heir apparent to the Obsidian Throne as his mother wanted him to be.**

**In comparison, his brother, Prince Jaehaerys, at the age of ten-and-four, already showed that he was wise beyond his years. Curiosity and an unquenchable desire for knowledge had rewarded him with genius intellect, and with that wisdom came also a shrewd mind. The court of New Valyria always spoke about the ‘sword and the book’ of the Empire whenever Jaehaerys and Viserys were seen together.**

**Alyssa searched for Viserys a bride of proper breeding when he turned ten-and-six, and she had several houses to pick from. Briefly, she considered marrying her daughter Alysanne to him, but that idea was short-lived when she saw the first time how she and her brother Jaehaerys kept each other close. Their seeds had been already planted, and Alyssa did not have the heart to tear them apart.**

**On a political note, the crown prince had not only need of a bride of Valyrian blood, but also one with benefits of her own.**

**A bride of convenience.**

**Alyssa’s own house came up first, but they lacked any daughters at the time, and House Velaryon was already a loyalist. Alyssa entertained marrying her son to the daughter of Edwell Celtigar, Lord of Claw Isle, whom they had assisted in subverting the people of Crackclaw Point to imperial rule in a minor conflict. Crackclaw Point was, de jure, a directly administrated fief of the emperor, but Aenys had granted Lord Edwell Celtigar the title of ‘Viceroy of Crackclaw Point’, a title which granted him dominion over the peninsula, but would revert back to the Obsidian Throne upon death. The Celtigars had little influence of themselves, to conclude. Another family worthy of consideration was House Rogare, a banking family hailing from Lys, but the amount of influence they held in the Empire was next to nil as well.**

**Eventually, her choice fell on an entirely different house, still of clear Valyrian descend, but closer to the capital.**

**House Belaerys, like their fellow Valyrians from House Targaryen, had escaped the tragedy of the Doom, and like them, had nestled themselves somewhere safe to regain wealth and stability. Though secretive of their heritage, House Belaerys openly proclaimed themselves Valyrians after the War of Restoration. Some scholars claim that the Belaerys’ influenced the city’s eventual surrender after the Sea of Fire. What the Belaerys’ lacked in dragons, they somehow made up with wealth powerful ties abroad, thanks to their careful plotting and intrigue. House Belaerys secured for itself a strong base in the form of trading and investment, both in slavery and luxury products.**

**Taelon Belaerys, a wealthy lord freeholder in Tyrosh, had made his intentions clear that he wished to offer his daughter, Lady Jaelys Belaerys, for marriage to the future Holy Valyrian Emperor. With her came a generous dowry of 200.000 golden ship coins. The empress was aware of Taelon’s ambition to one day sit as the next ruling Archon of Tyrosh. The imperial family could have use for an ally controlling the mouth of the Narrow Sea.**

**Just as the final preparations were being concluded, the wind rustled and the trees trembled like foliage, and the bright sun had darkened by a great shadow.**

**Balerion the Black Dread had returned.**

**And with him, he brought back the dead body of Princess Rhaella.**

* * *

**The Targaryen Duumvirate**

**In the year of our Restorer, Y55, His Imperial Grace, Emperor Aenys I, died peacefully in his sleep. Ruling for only half the time of his father, and during which little happened in the Holy Valyrian Empire, Aenys I was hereinafter nicknamed as Aenys the Peaceful, while others, less favourable towards him, mockingly styled him Aenys the Idle.**

**His eldest son, Prince Aegon Targaryen, disappeared alongside his sister-wife Rhaena, while his daughter Princess Rhaella was brought back died, leaving behind his other daughter Princess Aerea as his only descendant. Princess Aerea renounced her claim to the imperial throne when she, after years of servitude to the Faith of R’hllor, had risen as a prominent red priestess, and she remained content with her place.**

**With Aegon’s last remaining daughter no longer in the line of succession, Prince Viserys was crowned, by the High Priest in Volantis, as Viserys Targaryen, the First of his Line, Holy Valyrian Emperor, Forever Elevated, Scion of the Dragonlords and Sovereign of the Nine Cities.**

**As his wife, Emperor Viserys wedded the Lady Jaelys, and the two officially began their reign as emperor and empress.**

**Older and more confident, Emperor Viserys took it upon himself to bond with the greatest dragon alive, his grandfather’s mount Balerion the Black Dread. The dragon recognized his fierce heart, and so, accepted to become his mount, and the Black Dread had a rider once more after decades.**

**Prince Jaehaerys had laid claim on a dragon as well. Vermithor, third only to Meraxes and Balerion, bonded with the wise prince, and both emperor and his younger brother rode two of the greatest living dragons in history, and the beginning of Viserys’ reign looked stable.**

**Alyssa Velaryon, the Empress Dowager, remained in New Valyria, just as Rhaenys remained with her son, and acted as his closest confidante. His Hand, unsurprisingly, became his younger brother Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen. Under the careful watch of their mother, the two brothers had cultivated a strong bond almost as inseverable as Jaehaerys’ tie with his wife Alysanne, and now, the two brothers would set their skills on governing their grandfather’s empire.**

**Viserys and Jaelys had an initially good marriage, where desire and affection grew like weed between them. The Empire was sure it would blossom into a fruitful union.**

**Yet, as years passed, the emperor and empress still had no child of their own. Years of marriage, and Emperor Viserys still saw no children of his own seed running around, and it made him grow anxious. The lack of an heir brought considerable strain upon their union, and both husband and wife started quarrelling more often.**

**Whispers around the imperial court went that either the emperor was impotent or the empress was infertile. In the earlier months of his marriage, Viserys bedded his wife regularly, out of duty and as time passed, out of pleasure as well, yet his wife’s womb had not quickened once in the span of ten years.**

**Prince Jaehaerys had different qualms he had to face when it came to bringing children. His firstborn, a son named Aegon, both in commemoration after his brother and grandfather, came too early into the world and died after mere three days in the year Y52, three years before his father’s death. It caused great grief to both Jaehaerys and Alysanne, to see have seen their son breathe his last breath before he could have even hold a child of his own. The physicians tried everything within their power, and even the heat of a dragon egg did not keep at bay the clutches of death.**

**A spark of light returned to their lives with the birth of another child one year later, Princess Daenerys. After her, twelve other children would follow during the lifetime of Prince Jaehaerys and Princess Alysanne. Some of them did not reach adulthood, but it was a token to their fertility nonetheless.**

**His Imperial Grace, however, grew more bitter as years passed. The court kept gossiping, and his disputes with his wife grew more fervent. Convinced that the blame did not lie with his own capacity, Viserys set aside his wife and took a concubine, a Lysene, unclear whether common born or not, to start procreating with.**

**Empress Jaelys, and her family, were outraged by this, and Taelon Belaerys, now Archon of Tyrosh, threatened to cease paying taxes to the Crown, and even went as far as to incite secession. He was joined in that idea with Norvos, the city always quickest to start grumbling, and Braavos. Only the intervention of Prince Jaehaerys and the Empress Dowager Alyssa kept the minds at peace. Emperor Viserys spend a year with his concubine, but even she did not fatten with child.**

**Prince Jaehaerys ordered the assembly of physicians to check upon his brother’s fertility, to finally put an end to this period of uncertainty. Months of seed tests had finally brought the necessary conclusion; Emperor Viserys was indeed infertile. Shattered by the news, Viserys grew distant, and gradually fell in a cycle of depression, refusing to meet anyone, not even his beloved mother. The Empire was effectively governed by Jaehaerys already, but now with the emperor’s state of depression, the people of New Valyria had begun to see the Hand of the Emperor as their true sovereign.**

**Only by the efforts of his brother, Prince Jaehaerys, officially his heir now, and his mother Alyssa did Viserys come out of his melancholy, and decided to throw himself into that which he was best at; fighting.**

**His bonds with his brother had strengthened through the years, so much that Emperor Viserys crafted a special title for his brother and heir; the Prince of Dragonstone.**

**The two brothers came to an agreement. Viserys would lead the imperial legions into battle, while Jaehaerys stayed at the capital and served the Empire as de facto ruler. Emperor Viserys was aware of his lacklustre abilities as an administrator and diplomat, so the arrangement suited him perfectly. Viserys conciliated with his wife Jaelys and her family, but the dents left behind by years of insecurities and false accusations made them eventually go their separate ways.**

**On Balerion’s back and wielding his grandsire’s sword Blackfyre, Emperor Viserys led some of the greatest campaigns in the history of the Empire. His first campaign concerned the conquest of the Stepstones, his second the Summer Isles, and his last campaign a bloody war waged upon the horselords of the east. By the end of his reign, he had established twelve tributaries, including some of the khals of the Great Grass Sea.**

**For his military accomplishments, and his courageous heart, Emperor Viserys would go down the annals of history as Viserys the Dragonheart.**

* * *

**The Valyrian Golden Age**

**In the year of our Restorer, Y83, His Imperial Grace, Emperor Viserys the Dragonheart, was laid to rest after he broke his neck by a slip of his foot. His Imperial Grace, during the six-and-twentieth nameday feast of his nephew Prince Baelon, drank too much wine in the presence of his kin, and excused himself as to not further embarrass the imperial family, and retreated to his chambers. As he ascended the last few steps up, he missed a stair, and his slip made him tumble down the staircase and break every bone in his body.**

**The late emperor was cremated, as was tradition, in a great display of pageantry and his ashes placed in a urn and stored in the imperial urn wall.**

**Prince Jaehaerys, who served during the eight-and-twenty year long reign of his brother as Hand of the Emperor, succeeded to the throne as Jaehaerys Targaryen, the First of his Line, Holy Valyrian Emperor. His rise to the throne was an ascension already a couple of years in the making. Viserys, as his body started to fail him, so too did he start neglecting his imperial duties. Dragonheart grew sluggish and lax, and as the value of a sword started to mean less and less to him, Jaehaerys saw the prospect of his future reign drawing closer.**

**With the ascension of Emperor Jaehaerys came the golden age of the Holy Valyrian Empire. Under his sceptre, the Empire experienced a renaissance period. While not as much of a patron to artists and poets as his father, the emperor still financed painters and sculptors, architects and singers and mummers, to the delight of his people.**

**The emperor also fashioned great aqueducts, arenas, channels and bathhouses for the smallfolk, as well as sewers, fountains and sinking wells, greatly improving the life conditions of his people. The greatest project carried out under his decree was the construction of Aenar’s Arena, named after the father of their saviour Daenys the Dreamer.**

**New Valyria expanded under the dedicated vigil of Emperor Jaehaerys, and its population tripled since the beginning of his father’s reign. Under his reign, New Valyria was beautified as the Queen of Cities.**

**The first repairs to the dragon roads and other means of infrastructure were done as well. While the dragon roads themselves did not go down under the harsh sceptre of time, the surrounding areas had begun to grow wild and unkempt. Jaehaerys made sure that changed.**

**The fourth Targaryen emperor had also made it clear that no citizen of the Empire was allowed to enter the borders of Old Valyria. When his niece was brought back from there, she was declared dead, but upon closer inspection, something crawled beneath the skin of the young girl. Horrified, Jaehaerys ordered the immediate examination of what was happening to his niece. What the physicians discovered, and ultimately relayed to then Hand of the Emperor, brought Jaehaerys a week of sleepless nights.**

**During his reign, Targaryen power was at its peak. The Slaver Cities paid homage to the Holy Valyrian Emperor in exchange of sovereignty. Out of ten-and-nine khals, seven paid tribute to New Valyria. The Summer Isles brought exotic flesh and fruit to the capital and the economy was burgeoning. The High Priest, who crowned both the brother and father of Emperor Jaehaerys, had died, and his niece, Aerea Targaryen, succeeded him and became the first High Priestess in the history of the Faith of R’hllor.**

**One of High Priestess Aerea’s feats was the establishment of the Doctrine of Exceptionalism. The smallfolk, and even some members of the higher echelons of Valyrian society, had begun to make their discomfort clear about the incestuous nature of the Targaryen dynasty. The Faith of R’hllor did not have specific marriage rules pertaining this particular proclivity of the Valyrians.**

**High Priestess Aerea, in conjunction with her uncle Emperor Jaehaerys, came with the following dispensation; the Targaryens were not like other, ordinary men, as they rode dragons and were the only ones in the world since the Doom of Valyria. The Targaryens wed brother to sister as the Valyrians had always done, and as the gods had made them this way, it was not for men to judge. The ability to command and tame dragons, as well as their innate fiery immunity, made them stand above men of common blood.**

**Most of the faithful of the Lord of Light had accepted this explanation, as they wholly believed the imperial family ruled with divine right over their dominion.**

**Under Emperor Jaehaerys and his sister-wife Empress Alysanne, the Empire welcomed more foreigners, and more easily opened its door to other nations, such as the east, where envoys from Qarth and Yi Ti, and even Asshai came to behold the splendour of New Valyria, and the west, where the Sunset Kingdoms, especially the Princes of Dorne, the Storm Kings and the Kings of the Reach, mingled with the imperial family.**

**The reign of Emperor Jaehaerys Targaryen was an era of unrivalled supremacy and prosperity.**

**But as the saying goes; all good things come to an end.**

* * *

**The Iron Precedent**

**By the last few years of his life, Emperor Jaehaerys had outlived both his wife and many of his children. His reign was full of peace and plenty, and the smallfolk and highborn in that time lived during the greatest period of the Holy Valyrian Empire.**

**House Targaryen did not go without its own losses, however; warfare and fate had claimed some of the imperial heirs, and Emperor Jaehaerys started to consider the future succession with growing concern. His first heir, Prince Aegon, died three days after his birth unfortunately due to complications to his health. His second heir, Princess Daenerys, died to the Shivering Sickness. His third heir, Prince Aemon, six-and-thirty, succumbed to a crossbow bolt piercing his throat during the Subjugation of the Basilisk Isles, leaving behind his only issue Princess Visenya, born to him by a Braavosi noblewoman. His fourth heir became a matter of dispute between him and his wife, Empress Alysanne. While his wife argued for Visenya’s position, her husband eventually settled on naming his son, Prince Baelon, as the next Prince of Dragonstone, leading to the Second Quarrel between wife and husband, one even bigger than the First Quarrel.**

**Baelon, however, did not last long with the mantle of heir over his shoulders either, as a stitch to his stomach which he received in the battle to avenge his brother, started festering, and he died of a burst belly in the year Y101.**

**The Empire was deeply troubled because of the rapid changes of heirs, including His Imperial Grace. Across the Empire, factions had formed lending their support to different potential candidates to the imperial throne, and war seemed to be on the brink of the horizon.**

**One of the strongest claimants and supported by a large factions was Princess Visenya’s son, Matarys Velaryon, son of Corlys Velaryon, the Master of Driftmark, Emperor Jaehaerys’ first grandson. The other was Prince Viserys Targaryen, Baelon’s son to his sister-wife Alyssa, and the emperor’s grandson through the male line.**

**To avoid conflict between the factions, Emperor Jaehaerys organized the First Great Council, in the year Y101, to determine the succession. All the magisters and nobles of the Empire were invited to make the journey to New Valyria and determine the future heir to the imperial throne.**

**Hundreds of nobles travelled to the capital, and for the place of assembly was chosen Aenar’s Arena, where in total a thousand nobles attended the First Great Council.**

**The debate was a fight between primogeniture against proximity. Primogeniture favoured Visenya’s son Matarys, but proximity advocated for Viserys. Prince Viserys Targaryen was ultimately chosen by the assembled nobility, and while he was not present for the final deliberations, Emperor Jaehaerys I named Viserys the new Prince of Dragonstone. Corlys Velaryon, at the time the wealthiest man in the Empire, took it as an insult that his kin was passed over in succession, and while some in the realm with considerable influence backed his son’s claim, he did not press the issue, and the council officially named Viserys Targaryen as Prince of Dragonstone.**

**The outcome of the Great Council established an iron precedent in the Empire; the Obsidian Throne could not pass to a woman or a member of House Targaryen through the female line. Emperor Jaehaerys, with this precedent, cemented the absolute grip of House Targaryen on the imperial throne, as all the other family’s claims, legally, were declared invalid. Only in the event of a Targaryen tracing his line back exclusively through the male line could he lay claim.**

**His Imperial Grace once commented that, if his wife was still alive, the outcome of this Great Council would have most certainly led to the Third Quarrel between them.**

* * *

**Prelude to the Dance**

**In the year of our Restorer Y103 AR, two years after the Great Council, Emperor Jaehaerys died at the age of nine-and-sixty, bedridden and no more capable of ruling. His reign, even greater than that of his grandsire Aegon the Restorer, would go in the vestiges of history as the greatest Targaryen reign of all. The people of New Valyria, when they heard of the Old Emperor’s death, wept and tore at their clothes in grief, and the entire population had taken upon themselves to wear black for an entire month, to openly show their grief. While Aegon the Restorer brought the Daughters of Old Valyria under one throne, it was Jaehaerys Targaryen who ‘made of the Daughters of Old Valyria sisters again.’**

**His grandson, Viserys Targaryen, ascended to the Obsidian Throne and was crowned with great pomp and fanfare in New Valyria as Viserys Targaryen, the Second of his Line, Holy Valyrian Emperor, Forever Elevated, and so on and on.**

**Viserys II inherited from his grandfather a secure throne, a full treasury and a legacy of goodwill. House Targaryen was at its most powerful during Viserys's time, having the most members and dragons since the Doom of Valyria. Viserys was known as the Young Emperor when he ascended the Throne, and due to his amiable nature the smallfolk were optimistic about his reign.**

**Viserys had married his cousin Princess Aemma Arryn, the daughter of his sister Queen Daella and King Rodrik Arryn of the Mountain and Vale in the year Y93, and found herself now the consort to the Holy Valyrian Emperor.**

**The reign of Viserys II was, in comparison to his predecessors, one filled with numerous court intrigues, plots and schemes. The new emperor was rumoured to be Aenys I reborn, with all the flaws knitted along. Emperor Viserys was pleasant and jovial, an open-handed man who regularly hosted lavish balls, arena games and chariot races, but when it came to governance, he was often reluctant. His Hand, Aenor Qoherys, a scion of House Qoherys, ruled with effect and precision, and it was often under his vigil he made decisions. The Qoherys’ were at that time the most powerful magisters of Qohor, wealthy from the metal crafts and timber production they owned.**

**Emperor Viserys II and his wife, after a couple of years, were rewarded with a child of their own. His firstborn was a daughter, who he named Rhaenyra Targaryen. The young princess would grow up as one of the finest beauties of the Empire, and beyond, affectionately called the Empire’s Delight most courtiers. She served as her father’s cupbearer when she grow older.**

**Yet, Princess Rhaenyra’s childhood was not filled with the sounds of laughing siblings. Her mother suffered a couple of miscarriages, and gave birth to a son who died in his cradle. Eventually, her mother passed away in childbirth when her son, Prince Baelon, was brought to the world. The young babe himself did not survive his mother for long, and a day later, he too was taken.**

**The emperor was still within his fertile years, or so the physicians had said, and Viserys II was urged by some of his advisors to take another wife. Many vocally supported a marriage between him and the daughter of Lord Corlys Velaryon, Laena, in order to bring the Obsidian Throne and their once most loyal subject back together.**

**It was widely concerned a sound suggestion, but Emperor Viserys repudiated the idea and married the daughter of his Lord Hand, Jaehaera Qoherys. Some believe he was hectored into it, while others blame the decision on his easily influenced nature, which the Hand of the Emperor took advantage of.**

**Nevertheless, the union between Viserys and Jaehaera happened, and with it, it heralded a rivalry between Princess Rhaenyra and Empress Jaehaera.**

**Initially, they were amiable towards the other, but with the birth of the emperor’s sons Maegor and Maelor, Rhaenyra was pushed down the succession line, legally. Still, Viserys II adamantly held that his eldest daughter was the Princess of Dragonstone and his heiress, going against the precedent established by the Great Council during his grandfather’s reign, much to the ire of his wife and Lord Hand.**

**The rivalry between the empress and the heiress continued to fester, and was best symbolized in the way of their colours. Rhaenyra, wherever she was, always took to wearing the colours of her house, black and red, while Jaehaera kept to her own colours and sigil, most notably to white colours. Their respective parties thus were named the ‘blacks’ and the ‘whites’.**

**Another point of strain during Viserys’ reign was the constant presence of his overbearing brother, Prince Daemon Targaryen. His brother widely considered himself the heir to the imperial throne and coveted the title of Prince of Dragonstone avidly. While loved by his brother, Viserys had no intention to name him his heir.**

**When Princess Rhaenyra was born, Daemon still believed he was to become emperor one day. It was only when he coldly remarked about the tragic death of Viserys’ son, Prince Baelon, when he said he was ‘only heir for a day’, that the emperor spitefully proclaimed Rhaenyra his heiress and Princess of Dragonstone.**

**Many things during the reign of Viserys II were seen as tell-tales of brewing tension. More and more nobles joined a faction, and all around the emperor, the lord freeholders and magisters began to arm themselves, unbeknownst to the emperor. Dragonriders were to be found on both sides, a dangerous prospect and what it all meant. Some scholars remarked with relief that the Black Dread had perished in that period of time, for surely, the loss of life would have been insurmountable if he had still lived.**

**When the death of Emperor Viserys II came, in the year Y129 AR, the Empire stood poised before the greatest civil war in its history.**

**A war where dragons danced amongst one another.**

* * *

**The Dance of the Dragons**

**The death of Emperor Viserys II came with the blackest page of Targaryen history. By Viserys’ will, Princess Rhaenyra was to be crowned Holy Valyrian Empress, but the members of the late emperor’s privy council had other ideas.**

**Initially, the privy council addressed the topic in civil talk amongst each other. The High Commander of the imperial legions, Salloros Saan, advocated for Princess Rhaenyra, stating how it was the late emperor’s will to see his eldest daughter sit the Obsidian Throne. The others took Emperor Jaehaerys as their base of reason, stating that he had passed twice daughters of his dynasty to pick a male heir. Thus, it was by previously established precedent, Prince Maegor’s right to sit the throne. Others remarked that, should Rhaenyra be crowned, Prince Daemon Targaryen, who had married her after her first husband, Lord Matarys Velaryon, had died, would rule as the true emperor, never accepting to live as some mere consort. Many knew the cruel and mercurial nature of Daemon Targaryen, and many did not wish to see that come to pass.**

**The majority on the privy council knew of Salloros’ black allegiance, and many of the privy council members were whites themselves. As the discussion turned from civil to a shouting match, the High Commander marched off, refusing to partake in a scheme that would see Empress Jaehaera’s son as the next Holy Valyrian Emperor.**

**Before he could depart, and highly likely impart on Princess Rhaenyra the intention of several members of the court, Empress Jaehaera ordered the arrest of the High Commander, in which he tussled with the Blackguards. Eventually, he drew his sword, and was slain by the spears of the Blackguards, making him the first victim of the Dance of the Dragons.**

**Viserys’ son Maegor was crowned Maegor Targaryen, the First of his Line, with the crown of his ancestor Aegon the Restorer, a band of dragonglass inserted with rubies and given the sword Blackfyre as a token of his legitimacy.**

**The news reached Princess Rhaenyra, and fearing she might be captured in order to cull the blacks, fled on the back of her dragon Syrax, alongside her sons by Matarys, the Princes Victor, Laenor and Aethan Velaryon, all of them dragonriders too, to the island of Dragonstone, where she seethed with fury at the coronation of her half-brother. She was heavily pregnant with her fifth child, the second by her second husband, Daemon. Upon Dragonstone, Rhaenyra was crowned in an impromptu ceremony as Rhaenyra Targaryen, the First of her Line, Holy Valyrian Empress. It was the first time the Empire had two monarchs vying for the throne.**

**The following years was the darkest time of the Targaryen Monarchy. The Velaryons, loyal to Empress Rhaenyra, were first to pledge themselves to her and prepared the great Velaryon fleet, the fleet which granted the Empire total control of the Narrow Sea. Among the supporters of the blacks were the Sealord of Braavos, who added his ships to the Velaryon fleet, almost tripling it. The Archon of Tyrosh and the First Magister of Lys both swore their allegiance to the empress. Opposed to her were the cities of Volantis, Pentos and Qohor. The ruler of Qohor especially provided extensive aid to Jaehaera and her son Maegor, as the Qoherys were still in power there. Three of the nine cities remained neutral during the whole civil war, providing for both parties access across the land but refusing them entrance to their cities. Lorath, Myr and Norvos kept their swords sheathed.**

**There was also influence outside the Empire. The Queen of the Mountain and Vale, Jeyne Arryn, approached by Rhaenyra’s eldest son Prince Victor, had pledged herself behind her distant relative. The Durrandons of Storm’s End, descendant from Orys, the Restorer’s rumoured half-brother, were also called out for their dragonblood, and Rhaenyra had sent her son Prince Laenor to treat with the Storm King, only to find his uncle Prince Maelor already at Storm’s End. The clash between dragons and kin had begun there.**

**The ensuing war was a complete catastrophe for both belligerent parties. The blacks had the advantage on sea, but the whites held a more powerful army. The casualties on both sides was disastrous. Many Targaryens, of name and of blood, had perished during the Dance of the Dragons. Many a Targaryen had gained the vile title of kinslayer during the civil war. The period when Viserys II died would be forever seen as the time ‘when dragons sang dirges of fire, and people wept tears of blood’.**

**Empress Rhaenyra, slowly falling to bouts of insanity, was eventually captured by turncloaks and brought before her half-brother Maegor only to be fed alive to his dragon Sunfyre. Her sons by Prince Matarys, Princes Laenor, Victor and Aethan, had all perished in the war. Her other sons by Daemon, Princes Aegon and Viserys had survived, but both brought back to New Valyria, where Aegon witnessed the horrifying death of his mother forced upon him by his half-uncle, Emperor Maegor.**

**Prince Daemon, her husband, had died in an epic battle between himself and another dragonrider, his nephew Maelor, who had defeated and killed his own nephew Laenor. Both dragonriders died while they clashed, as well as their dragons Vhagar and Caraxes, in what is now known as the Battle Above Nymeria’s Palace.**

**Emperor Maegor, as the war dragged on and many started to see him for the cruel and despicable man he was, had been fed poison and died not so long after. His line ended when his children by his sister-wife Herae, the Princes Jaehaerys, Jaehaera and Alys, died. Scholars had reviled him for his misrule as Maegor the Cruel and Maegor the Usurper.**

**New Valyria was almost reduced to a pile of rubble during the civil war, where dragons lit up the sky and the ground without a breath of pause. The Dragonpit was overrun by a crazed mob of peasants, who, in their desperation, unleashed their fury upon the chained dragons. By the end of the Dance, only a handful of the imperial family remained, and only a few dragons as well, irreversibly destroying imperial hold over the Empire.**

**The only remaining members of House Targaryen were Prince Aegon and Prince Viserys, both too young to mount the Obsidian Throne.**

**The Dance of the Dragons would forever be remembered in the history books as the bloodiest conflict between kin.**

**Years of prosperity, peace and stability had all been destroyed in the span of merely two years. The legacy built by the Five Good Emperors was irrevocably broken and burnt.**

**The next Holy Valyrian Emperor, Aegon II, would inherit a realm as broken as himself.**


End file.
